BLOCK B ENGLISH 10 SHORT STORIES. COLLABORATIVE STORY. You may use the discussion forum to discuss plot elements if you wish. Please sign in, in order to edit this page. You will receive a password and username in class. ANGELINA will set the scene, identify the main character: antagonist/protagonist and activating circumstance. She will introduce the conflict that starts the action. YASMINE is the Anchor/Final Editor
The slow beeps of the heart monitor resonate throughout the small hospital room, periodically intruding on the thoughts of two of the three humans residing in the cell. The first, is a man in a doctor’s uniform who sits beside the wire-frame hospital cot. He hunches over a plastic clipboard in one hand while the other balances his thick glasses at the edge of his nose. He squints down at the minuscule scribbles that he etched onto the paper. He looks up and speaks to the only other responsive being in the room. "The hospital will be closing soon. Miss, I will need to ask you to leave." The woman crouched in the chair with face in hands looks up. She had been crying. Her face was swollen and her eyes were dull. She unfurls, straightens her back, and pauses for a moment as her mind scrambles to make sense of the man's words. The woman eventually stands up slowly and leaves the room. The man watches as the door closes behind her with a soft click of the handle. He takes in a breath, and then lets it out slowly. His eyes wander down to the cot. The doctor watches as the boy's chest moves up and down beneath the thin blue sheets of the hospital bed. He notices the tendrils of fog clouding the clear oxygen mask, it grows and shrinks in sync with the boy's breathing. He thinks the boy will not wake up anytime soon. It will be a miracle if he is proven wrong.
.................................................
Cage is a normal boy. He is a high school student with a regular school time of eight to three. Like any other high school student, Cage has to hand in homework and study for exams. He has an extreme devotion to fiction books; anything that has magic, robots, or adventure is his cup of tea. He often scours the libraries near his house for any unread novels. None of his friends would be surprised to find him reading under the table or curled up in a corner, eating up volumes and volumes of paperbacks. His social life leaves more things to desire. Because of his timid manner and his tendency to go into shock when strangers start conversations with him, his friends are just less than a handful. Among his peers, he is not considered a cool kid; perhaps the other end of the spectrum. His nearsightedness is the result of his love for reading, which has led to him staying up late into the nights. The dark confides of his late night madness has resulted in the near blindness of his vision. If Cage were to lose his glasses, he would become the equivalent of a mole rat. Only being able to see the distance between his face and the tip of his nose, he is pleasantly surprised to find that his vision is clear when he wakes up. He wonders if he forgot to take out his contact lenses the previous night, but his eyes do not feel like a thousand sand grains grating against his eyelids. No, that cannot be it. He rubs his eyes and looks around. He panics as he realizes that he is not in his bed, but instead, the sandy floor of the ocean.
Cage’s sense of dread grows steadily as his attempts to go back to sleep fail. Wait. Back to sleep? He realizes he is still able to breathe, which unsettles him more. Panic-stricken, he quickly gets up and looks around, only finding relief in knowing he is not far from the surface. He swims up and gasps for air. Pausing at the unnecessary action, confused, but then disregarding it. The water is frigid. The sky is dark and gloomy. There is no wisp of land in sight. Cage floats on his back as he tries to calm down. Where is he? How did he even get here? What is he supposed to do now? Beneath the vast canopy of dull clouds, Cage helplessly drifts on the expanse of water; the feeling of insignificance and loneliness overwhelms him. Small waves lap at him as his feet hit something...
Cage looks down to see a giant boulder protruding from the water. He notices there is a word written on the side and swims around it to examine the writing. Unfortunately, he finds the word has long since eroded. Cage looks into the horizon. With no land in sight he decides to climb onto the boulder to pass the time. He sees the dim sun peek behind the clouds. Closing his eyes, he forgets where he is and what has happened. His body goes limp, and as if the boulder has disappeared, he falls into the sea. Shock tenses his body, and when he opens his eyes, he is not in the ocean any more but rather a bright room. He looks around but there is nothing in sight, just brightness. Cage hears a woman's voice but he cannot place whose it is....
The light suddenly goes out, engulfing Cage in darkness. He walks forwards, right through a wall, into a long, dark, hospital corridor. Walking from the blackness is a familiar figure — her face swollen, her eyes puffed with tears. She is much older than he is, and he wonders if she is someone with whom he is close to. Cage cannot remember who she is, except that she is important in his life. Her cries fill his ears, causing unease. Cage wants to help her, to make her happy. He feels as if it is even his fault she is crying. He walks right in front of her, hoping that she will stop and look at him. She walks right through him, and through a door behind him.
Cage is stunned. He is perfectly sane and awake, so how could that woman have passed through him without even noticing him? Cage decides to explore for answers. Instead of following her, he heads towards the gloomy innards of this building. The main corridor visibly branches off into smaller hallways and doors, presumably leading into patient's rooms. There is a strong smell of isopropyl alcohol in the air. Suddenly, Cage feels a slight tug — he cannot describe how it feels, as it is nowhere on his skin. It is not physical. Spiritual? Perhaps... his soul?. How can he describe something that comes from the plot of a fictional book, but is happening in real life? Cage follows this tug, which increases in intensity as he passes room after room. As if he has done this countless times before, he turns into a room, and the pressure is released. There, right in front of him, lies... him, Cage. He is lying on a bed, with monitor stickers placed all over his body. A heart-rate monitor which beeps regularly stands nearby. Cage wants to move forward, to look at what exactly is going on, but he cannot move: the tugging returns as quickly as it went before, forcing him back out. This time, he is knocked backwards into the other wall of the corridor, but he phases through it as he did once before. The sound of water rushes by his ears.
He is back in the gloomy world with the endless sea, but he needs to go back. He floats in the water, too occupied with thoughts of these conflicting realities to notice how tense his body is. He wants to go back to the place where he saw the crying woman and himself. As he wonders about how he can return, he sees the boulder, sitting just a few feet away from him. He glimpses at the eroded writing again, only this time, it's clearer. Now he can make out some details. Five letters? He traces the marks with his finger and makes out the first letter as a "C". The clouds are looking even more depressing than before. Distracted, his finger catches on something sharp protruding from the rock. Ouch. Damn this stubble on the boulder. A small bead of blood smears the scratches. As if his blood is a hand wiping at a foggy mirror, the letters suddenly intensely define, spelling "Cassy". Cassy? Who is this "Cassy"? That irresistible tug returns, and before Cage can even furrow his eyebrows in frustration and confusion, a force drags him underwater. The surface throws itself out of his reach as he gets pulled further down. His breathing is sporadic but no water fills his lungs. Where the hell is he? Why can he breathe? His mind floods with tangled questions as his back hits the sand, and keeps going.
Like before, he finds himself emerging from another wall, into the middle of the same hospital corridor. Again, the tug leads him to the room where another him lay, and the pressure is released as soon as he enters. He can see his body lying on the hospital bed, hooked up to the same heart monitor but does not hear the consistent beeping of the machine. Instead, a flatline fills the room, and nurses and doctors rush in, jumping to shock him with defibrillators. He hears sighs of relief as the monitor starts to emit the familiar beeping again, but he can no longer handle seeing himself. Cage leaves the room, taking one last glance back at himself, hoping so hard this is just a dream. What else can it be? He turns to his left. The only other choice he has now is to find the woman. Fearing the tug will return and that he will not be able to control his actions, he is filled with the determination to find her as soon as possible.
Cage enters the labyrinth of hallways that is the odd hospital, and soon after he sees the same dark figure turning a corner. He proceeds in her direction and stops at the corner she just turned. Cage recalls his previous counter with her. There is a likelihood she will not notice or see him this time either. He looks in the direction that she was heading and sees the only way to proceed is a dark stairwell seemingly leading to the hospital's basement. At the top of the stairwell and looking down, he can see nothing but blackness beyond the top three steps. He begins to run his hand along the wall, for a light switch, but the one he finds does not work. Sighing, Cage cautiously begins moving down the staircase, it feels like forever before he reaches the bottom. His eyes adjust to the darkness and he makes out a few shapes in the basement: old machines with thick wires all over the floor, neat stacks of hospital cots each in air-tight wrapping, and countless boxes stacked or scattered through the room. He sees another door, open, leading into a dark corridor. He enters it, as the woman does not seem to be anywhere this storage room, and because there are clearly no other way to go.
As he goes into the unusual extension of the subfloor, he hears the distorted giggle of a woman coming from somewhere further down the corridor. Cage, now put even more off ease begins to consider turning back and leaving the basement. Nothing good ever happened down here in those fiction paperbacks he read, and most definitely not in odd extensions of basements. However, he pushes on, moving down the long and silent hall. Cage makes it to the end, arriving at an open door to a room. What was this? A single hospital room at the end of a rogue corridor, branching from the storage? He sees a figure, sitting on a hospital cot in the middle of the bare room, back towards him. Get out. An unexplainable window the cot has been positioned directly in front creates a silhouette of the figure. Cage's stomach does not sit well with this, and his brain fairs far worse. Get out! He knows it is the woman, and it is time for confrontation. Get OUT. This is it, and he anxiously approaches the figure, eyes glued to her. GET OUT. Cage abruptly stops as her head snaps to the side. Before he can even contemplate what to do, she turns around to face his direction; Cage is horrified by what he sees.
She looks so familiar. She looks like him. He knows she looks like him. Mother? But right now, her face is severely distorted and out of focus, like water disrupting a still reflection in a pond. Her eyes are sunken and surrounded by severe dark rings - Cage feels like he is going to be sick. She is his mother. The woman starts walking vacillatingly towards Cage. His heart begins to race and his chest tightens, it feels as if his head is about to explode with panic. The soft padding of footsteps becomes threateningly closer. Cage takes a step back, trying to keep a safe distance from the woman. She is his mother, but not right now. She stares at him, then beyond him, at something behind Cage.
He turns around to see what the woman is looking at, and finds himself staring down the hallway he came through. He can't distinguish any details of the walls or floor, as if the door lead into a black hole instead. Immediately his mind becomes disorientated. Although he is standing in this room, with someone else, Cage is bewildered and feels like he is floating in space. Something emerges from the viscous shadows. Whatever preconceptions of however Death looked, whether it was a skeleton in black robes and a scythe, or a dark fallen angel, Cage brushes off. What he is seeing is neither, instead, much more simple. A much larger, humanoid -but shifting- figure, lurches steadily into the room. Stricken with fear, but having no desire to escape, Cage stands there. Limitless growing tendrils embrace him. Unable to hear the woman anymore, with the presence of Death numbing his senses, Cage feels alone. The rest of the world is not there. His vision speckles before it fades into black.
All of Cage's memories float around in his head like puzzle pieces, almost impossible to put together. Is this Nirvana? Cage feels as if he only exists, but as a thought. Whatever physical embodiment that was Cage once before is gone. He is a wandering idea, an empty strand of dream floating in the void. He has visions of himself looking upwards at the surface of the sea, his mother looking down at him. Her face, like in the basement extension, is distorted. Something clicks. Cassy. The word he found on the boulder in the ocean. It is the name of his twin sister. The thought of the mere name Cassy feels horrible. Cage has a burning desire to get to the bottom of why these uncovered thoughts have a twinge of dread with them. It is buried in his brain and he cannot dig it out. Before he can further pry into his mind, Cage is pulled into a flashback.
--
It is a mundane Sunday afternoon, and Cage's mother is cleaning the bathroom. She has been doing chores around the house for the entire day and feels frustrated that Cage and Cassy are not lending a hand. She calls them upstairs, trying to sound as unthreatening as possible. When the twins arrive she asks them for help. Cassy initially ignores her request.
"Guys, could you lend a hand please? It's only me, and the house is a big place to clean." their mother asks.
"What else do you need help with? I mean, haven't you gone through the entire complex already?" Cage replies, bored.
Cassy smirks and continues scrolling through her phone.
Their mother, looking defeated and upset at the lack of any offer to help, just smiles weakly.
"Are you kids at least doing homework then?" she asks.
Cassy clearly irritated shoots back, "Its none of your business, just go back to cleaning, and don't forget you have to prepare dinner for dad when he comes back from work."
Even Cage, not wanting to clean is disturbed at his sister's rudeness and can not believe what she had just said. He can see his mother from his peripheral vision staring intensely at Cassy, but still keeping her smile. He knows how Cassy and him are not particularly the best children, but even that was overkill. Maybe Cassy just got dumped. Honestly, that is probably why. His mother, attempts to cuts through the tension,
"Darling, would you help me clean the bathtub, please.".
“No,” Cassy stammers, “Why should I?”
“Young lady-” begins their mother.
“Why don’t you ask Cage? He is your favourite after all!”
Cassy stomps downstairs, sick of this conversation. Cage looks at her leaving, bewildered about his sister’s unnecessarily excessive outburst.
“Mom, would you like me to help?” asks Cage, now feeling sorry.
“It's fine, Cage, just go back to your room,” his mother replies. She hasn't gotten much sleep lately and perhaps this is why she has no will to follow Cassy and scold her.
“Okay.” Cage quietly says, walking back to his room. He sits on his bed and continues the paperback adventure he was on before his mother called for him and Cassy. However, he can not concentrate. While he and Cassy most definitely has ups and downs, being sibling -twins- of course, he is put off by her rude attitude. He looks outside his window and at the sunny sidewalk across the street. A boy and his sister, both seemingly around 8 years old, chasing bubbles a man is blowing, presumably their father. Next to the man is a woman, likely their mother, smiling at their care-free children. Cage feels nostalgic, and remembers a time before his father was home more than he was at work. He feels sorry for his mother, having to deal with two angsty teenagers all the time. Cage wishes to have more moments like that family, but what can he do?
“I know,” Cage whispers to himself, “A family outing! With this, mom and sis might make up!”
Nervous that his idea may fail, but excited all the same, Cage runs to his mother's room.
“Mom,” he says, “Let’s have a family outing with everyone!”
“Oh, I don’t know Cage,” his mother answers, “What do you have in mind??”
“Um. The beach, we should go to the beach! You can take a break from cleaning, I'm sure it'll be fun."
“Well, I do want to rest a while, and we haven't gone to the beach in ages.” His mother looks at Cage and sees his enthusiasm, something she has not seen in her children's faces regarding family outings in a long time.
“Alright fine. We'll go to the beach.”
In the car, Cage still feels the tension in the air. He wishes that his dad wasn't at work, so that he wouldn't miss this rare family outing to the beach. Cage's mother asks the children if they are excited, in effort to raise the spirits of the group. Cage enthusiastically answers, "Yeah!", while Cassy has her earbuds in and gives no response. Their mother asks Cassy directly, slightly raising her voice this time. Cage can tell how much his mother wants this to be a good time. Cassy hears this and gives her mother an irritated look through the rear-view mirror. He tries to diffuse the situation. He doesn't like how Cassy was acting lately.
"Can you be a little bit friendlier to Mom?", Cage says to his sister.
She in turn explodes, "Why are you two being so annoying?! I don't want to talk to either of you right now!".
Cage opens his mouth to make a comeback, but he is interrupted by his mother.
"Enough, I just want us to have a good time.".
She then resumes driving, and the previous tension makes way for silence to fill the car.
Both Cassy and Cage look at their mother through the rear-view mirror and see her saddened face. Both disliking the environment, both feeling too sorry to try to undo the conflict.
When the family arrives at the beach, to everyone's relief, it's as if their previous quarrel never happened. Cage and Cassy sprint down the sand and hop into the rolling waves, while their mother sets up an umbrella and a mat. Cassy and Cage splash water at each other, a classic sibling play fight.
"You are not getting away with that.", Cage yells as Cassy runs away after emptying a water filled bucket onto her brother.
"Catch me if you can!", Cassy replies as she swims further away from shore, towards a rockier part of the beach. "Hey loser, let's dive off the rocks, it'll be fun." she climbs onto a closer rock and begins to make her way down the stretch of boulders curving out into the sea.
"Get off that! Mom's gonna be so pissed off if you bump your head, and aren't you not allowed to dive off of that??" Cage is clearly concerned. He glances back at their mother, a speckle on the sand, and back at Cassy.
"Since when did you lose all your guts Cage, watch how the daredevil does it!" Cassy yells back. Cage's eye's widen as he scans the portion of this rocky extension closer to the beach and sees a sign, "Do not dive, shallow depth with rocks.". Cage flips out.
"CASSY! WAIT DON'T-"
Too late. Cage turns back towards Cassy's direction in time to see the bottom half of her body enter the water. He feels his guts clench as Cassy's body hits something beneath the waves. His heart skips a beat as he watches her body awkwardly bend into the water. Although there is no way Cage could have heard it, he replays the scene of his sister dying, the made up thud of her head hitting the unseen boulder beneath the waves.
"Cassy is in trouble," Cage thought. "She's in trouble. Cassy is in trouble. She's not okay. She's not okay." He screams for help and waves desperately at their mother, but Cage know he is too far from the shore for anyone to hear him. He sees his mother staring at his direction blankly, and although he is too far to see her expression, he can imagine the horror of realization spread across her face. He can see her running towards the life guard, and watches the man jump into the water frantically with a buoy. Still floating in water, Cage panics, too afraid to swim closer to where Cassy jumped. He knows if he gets too close, he might injure himself on one of those boulders scattered beneath the surface, or worse, see Cassy's lifeless face. But what if she can still be saved? What if this is her last salvation? Before Cage can make up his mind, he sees blood disperse through the water where Cassy's body folded. The lifegaurd's piercing whistles are muffled and subdued beneath Cage's blank thoughts.
There was no superhero to save her nor was this a dream. His heart drowns along with Cassy. He can't speak a word or move a finger, even when the lifeguard reaches him and asks if he is alright. As the lifeguard risks his life to dive under the waves for Cassy, Cage can only think of one thing. She is completely gone. She no longer exists in this world. He feels hopeless, and begins to cry.
Cage drops on his knees when he reaches the shore. His mother is there and clasps him in his arms.
"Cage, Cage my boy what happened. Where is your sister? Where is Cassy? Where is she??" Cage's mother grabs him by the shoulders, her make-up running as her tears steam down her face. "I couldn't save her, mom. I couldn't move." Cage squeaks. "What? What do you mean? Save? Why couldn't you? What do you mean??" She says, frantic. "She hit a boulder. She didn't come back up, I think she-" "No, don't say that. Where is your sister? Where-" "She's dead mom, her head hit a boulder when she was diving. She's dea-" Cage's mom slaps him. His state of shock still renders him unable to react. "She is not. Where is your sister," chokes out his mother, "Don't you dare say that." The lifeguard returns, a lifeless, limp Cassy hanging from his arms. Her eyes are wide, unmoving, unsettled. Her wet hair drips red onto the sand. The lifeguard apologizes and gently lays Cassy's pale body onto the sand. Then he moves away from Cassy to call an ambulance. Their mother's grip on Cage's shoulders relax, as if she no longer has strength. She crawls, hesitantly, the short distance between herself, and her daughter. "Cassy. My baby girl. Cassy? Wake up, sweetie. Darling, please.." their mother quietly cries out. "Mom she's.. she isn't going to answer." Cage says. Silence blankets the heartbroken family. "Don't. Don't SAY THAT." Cage's mother lunges towards Cage and drags him towards the waters. "Mom! What are you doing? Stop, Mom, Stop!!" Cage squirms and fights his mother's unexpectedly strong grasp on his arm and neck. "What are you doing?! Let go Mo-" "This is YOUR fault. You could have saved her. What is wrong with you?" She screeches. "I'm sorry, I'm sorry Mom I trie-" "YOUR FAULT." Cage's mother violently shoves Cage's head into the water, face upwards to the sky. Cage is so shocked he doesn't have time to hold his breath. His pleas continue underwater and the sea rushes into his lungs, sore from screaming. It feel as if minutes pass before the lifeguard comes to pry his mother's hands off of him, but by the time that happens, Cage is already unconscious.
--
The pitch blackness of the void Cage's existence is now in, feels clammy on his metaphysical body. Cassy died, in a horrible accident. Cage hears the imaginary thud of his sister's head hitting the boulder. He can hear his mother's screams, muffled and enveloped by the waves. He can hear the deafening beeping of a heart monitor, beeping, beeping, beeping, thud, scream, beep, thud, scream, beep-
SHORT STORIES. COLLABORATIVE STORY. You may use the discussion forum to discuss plot elements if you wish. Please sign in, in order to edit this page. You will receive a password and username in class.
ANGELINA will set the scene, identify the main character: antagonist/protagonist and activating circumstance. She will introduce the conflict that starts the action.
YASMINE is the Anchor/Final Editor
The slow beeps of the heart monitor resonate throughout the small hospital room, periodically intruding on the thoughts of two of the three humans residing in the cell. The first, is a man in a doctor’s uniform who sits beside the wire-frame hospital cot. He hunches over a plastic clipboard in one hand while the other balances his thick glasses at the edge of his nose. He squints down at the minuscule scribbles that he etched onto the paper. He looks up and speaks to the only other responsive being in the room. "The hospital will be closing soon. Miss, I will need to ask you to leave." The woman crouched in the chair with face in hands looks up. She had been crying. Her face was swollen and her eyes were dull. She unfurls, straightens her back, and pauses for a moment as her mind scrambles to make sense of the man's words. The woman eventually stands up slowly and leaves the room. The man watches as the door closes behind her with a soft click of the handle. He takes in a breath, and then lets it out slowly. His eyes wander down to the cot. The doctor watches as the boy's chest moves up and down beneath the thin blue sheets of the hospital bed. He notices the tendrils of fog clouding the clear oxygen mask, it grows and shrinks in sync with the boy's breathing. He thinks the boy will not wake up anytime soon. It will be a miracle if he is proven wrong.
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Cage is a normal boy. He is a high school student with a regular school time of eight to three. Like any other high school student, Cage has to hand in homework and study for exams. He has an extreme devotion to fiction books; anything that has magic, robots, or adventure is his cup of tea. He often scours the libraries near his house for any unread novels. None of his friends would be surprised to find him reading under the table or curled up in a corner, eating up volumes and volumes of paperbacks. His social life leaves more things to desire. Because of his timid manner and his tendency to go into shock when strangers start conversations with him, his friends are just less than a handful. Among his peers, he is not considered a cool kid; perhaps the other end of the spectrum. His nearsightedness is the result of his love for reading, which has led to him staying up late into the nights. The dark confides of his late night madness has resulted in the near blindness of his vision. If Cage were to lose his glasses, he would become the equivalent of a mole rat. Only being able to see the distance between his face and the tip of his nose, he is pleasantly surprised to find that his vision is clear when he wakes up. He wonders if he forgot to take out his contact lenses the previous night, but his eyes do not feel like a thousand sand grains grating against his eyelids. No, that cannot be it. He rubs his eyes and looks around. He panics as he realizes that he is not in his bed, but instead, the sandy floor of the ocean.
Cage’s sense of dread grows steadily as his attempts to go back to sleep fail. Wait. Back to sleep? He realizes he is still able to breathe, which unsettles him more. Panic-stricken, he quickly gets up and looks around, only finding relief in knowing he is not far from the surface. He swims up and gasps for air. Pausing at the unnecessary action, confused, but then disregarding it. The water is frigid. The sky is dark and gloomy. There is no wisp of land in sight. Cage floats on his back as he tries to calm down. Where is he? How did he even get here? What is he supposed to do now? Beneath the vast canopy of dull clouds, Cage helplessly drifts on the expanse of water; the feeling of insignificance and loneliness overwhelms him. Small waves lap at him as his feet hit something...
Cage looks down to see a giant boulder protruding from the water. He notices there is a word written on the side and swims around it to examine the writing. Unfortunately, he finds the word has long since eroded. Cage looks into the horizon. With no land in sight he decides to climb onto the boulder to pass the time. He sees the dim sun peek behind the clouds. Closing his eyes, he forgets where he is and what has happened. His body goes limp, and as if the boulder has disappeared, he falls into the sea. Shock tenses his body, and when he opens his eyes, he is not in the ocean any more but rather a bright room. He looks around but there is nothing in sight, just brightness. Cage hears a woman's voice but he cannot place whose it is....
The light suddenly goes out, engulfing Cage in darkness. He walks forwards, right through a wall, into a long, dark, hospital corridor. Walking from the blackness is a familiar figure — her face swollen, her eyes puffed with tears. She is much older than he is, and he wonders if she is someone with whom he is close to. Cage cannot remember who she is, except that she is important in his life. Her cries fill his ears, causing unease. Cage wants to help her, to make her happy. He feels as if it is even his fault she is crying. He walks right in front of her, hoping that she will stop and look at him. She walks right through him, and through a door behind him.
Cage is stunned. He is perfectly sane and awake, so how could that woman have passed through him without even noticing him? Cage decides to explore for answers. Instead of following her, he heads towards the gloomy innards of this building. The main corridor visibly branches off into smaller hallways and doors, presumably leading into patient's rooms. There is a strong smell of isopropyl alcohol in the air. Suddenly, Cage feels a slight tug — he cannot describe how it feels, as it is nowhere on his skin. It is not physical. Spiritual? Perhaps... his soul?. How can he describe something that comes from the plot of a fictional book, but is happening in real life? Cage follows this tug, which increases in intensity as he passes room after room. As if he has done this countless times before, he turns into a room, and the pressure is released. There, right in front of him, lies... him, Cage. He is lying on a bed, with monitor stickers placed all over his body. A heart-rate monitor which beeps regularly stands nearby. Cage wants to move forward, to look at what exactly is going on, but he cannot move: the tugging returns as quickly as it went before, forcing him back out. This time, he is knocked backwards into the other wall of the corridor, but he phases through it as he did once before. The sound of water rushes by his ears.
He is back in the gloomy world with the endless sea, but he needs to go back. He floats in the water, too occupied with thoughts of these conflicting realities to notice how tense his body is. He wants to go back to the place where he saw the crying woman and himself. As he wonders about how he can return, he sees the boulder, sitting just a few feet away from him. He glimpses at the eroded writing again, only this time, it's clearer. Now he can make out some details. Five letters? He traces the marks with his finger and makes out the first letter as a "C". The clouds are looking even more depressing than before. Distracted, his finger catches on something sharp protruding from the rock. Ouch. Damn this stubble on the boulder. A small bead of blood smears the scratches. As if his blood is a hand wiping at a foggy mirror, the letters suddenly intensely define, spelling "Cassy". Cassy? Who is this "Cassy"? That irresistible tug returns, and before Cage can even furrow his eyebrows in frustration and confusion, a force drags him underwater. The surface throws itself out of his reach as he gets pulled further down. His breathing is sporadic but no water fills his lungs. Where the hell is he? Why can he breathe? His mind floods with tangled questions as his back hits the sand, and keeps going.
Like before, he finds himself emerging from another wall, into the middle of the same hospital corridor. Again, the tug leads him to the room where another him lay, and the pressure is released as soon as he enters. He can see his body lying on the hospital bed, hooked up to the same heart monitor but does not hear the consistent beeping of the machine. Instead, a flatline fills the room, and nurses and doctors rush in, jumping to shock him with defibrillators. He hears sighs of relief as the monitor starts to emit the familiar beeping again, but he can no longer handle seeing himself. Cage leaves the room, taking one last glance back at himself, hoping so hard this is just a dream. What else can it be? He turns to his left. The only other choice he has now is to find the woman. Fearing the tug will return and that he will not be able to control his actions, he is filled with the determination to find her as soon as possible.
Cage enters the labyrinth of hallways that is the odd hospital, and soon after he sees the same dark figure turning a corner. He proceeds in her direction and stops at the corner she just turned. Cage recalls his previous counter with her. There is a likelihood she will not notice or see him this time either. He looks in the direction that she was heading and sees the only way to proceed is a dark stairwell seemingly leading to the hospital's basement. At the top of the stairwell and looking down, he can see nothing but blackness beyond the top three steps. He begins to run his hand along the wall, for a light switch, but the one he finds does not work. Sighing, Cage cautiously begins moving down the staircase, it feels like forever before he reaches the bottom. His eyes adjust to the darkness and he makes out a few shapes in the basement: old machines with thick wires all over the floor, neat stacks of hospital cots each in air-tight wrapping, and countless boxes stacked or scattered through the room. He sees another door, open, leading into a dark corridor. He enters it, as the woman does not seem to be anywhere this storage room, and because there are clearly no other way to go.
As he goes into the unusual extension of the subfloor, he hears the distorted giggle of a woman coming from somewhere further down the corridor. Cage, now put even more off ease begins to consider turning back and leaving the basement. Nothing good ever happened down here in those fiction paperbacks he read, and most definitely not in odd extensions of basements. However, he pushes on, moving down the long and silent hall. Cage makes it to the end, arriving at an open door to a room. What was this? A single hospital room at the end of a rogue corridor, branching from the storage? He sees a figure, sitting on a hospital cot in the middle of the bare room, back towards him. Get out. An unexplainable window the cot has been positioned directly in front creates a silhouette of the figure. Cage's stomach does not sit well with this, and his brain fairs far worse. Get out! He knows it is the woman, and it is time for confrontation. Get OUT. This is it, and he anxiously approaches the figure, eyes glued to her. GET OUT. Cage abruptly stops as her head snaps to the side. Before he can even contemplate what to do, she turns around to face his direction; Cage is horrified by what he sees.
She looks so familiar. She looks like him. He knows she looks like him. Mother? But right now, her face is severely distorted and out of focus, like water disrupting a still reflection in a pond. Her eyes are sunken and surrounded by severe dark rings - Cage feels like he is going to be sick. She is his mother. The woman starts walking vacillatingly towards Cage. His heart begins to race and his chest tightens, it feels as if his head is about to explode with panic. The soft padding of footsteps becomes threateningly closer. Cage takes a step back, trying to keep a safe distance from the woman. She is his mother, but not right now. She stares at him, then beyond him, at something behind Cage.
He turns around to see what the woman is looking at, and finds himself staring down the hallway he came through. He can't distinguish any details of the walls or floor, as if the door lead into a black hole instead. Immediately his mind becomes disorientated. Although he is standing in this room, with someone else, Cage is bewildered and feels like he is floating in space. Something emerges from the viscous shadows. Whatever preconceptions of however Death looked, whether it was a skeleton in black robes and a scythe, or a dark fallen angel, Cage brushes off. What he is seeing is neither, instead, much more simple. A much larger, humanoid -but shifting- figure, lurches steadily into the room. Stricken with fear, but having no desire to escape, Cage stands there. Limitless growing tendrils embrace him. Unable to hear the woman anymore, with the presence of Death numbing his senses, Cage feels alone. The rest of the world is not there. His vision speckles before it fades into black.
All of Cage's memories float around in his head like puzzle pieces, almost impossible to put together. Is this Nirvana? Cage feels as if he only exists, but as a thought. Whatever physical embodiment that was Cage once before is gone. He is a wandering idea, an empty strand of dream floating in the void. He has visions of himself looking upwards at the surface of the sea, his mother looking down at him. Her face, like in the basement extension, is distorted. Something clicks. Cassy. The word he found on the boulder in the ocean. It is the name of his twin sister. The thought of the mere name Cassy feels horrible. Cage has a burning desire to get to the bottom of why these uncovered thoughts have a twinge of dread with them. It is buried in his brain and he cannot dig it out. Before he can further pry into his mind, Cage is pulled into a flashback.
--It is a mundane Sunday afternoon, and Cage's mother is cleaning the bathroom. She has been doing chores around the house for the entire day and feels frustrated that Cage and Cassy are not lending a hand. She calls them upstairs, trying to sound as unthreatening as possible. When the twins arrive she asks them for help. Cassy initially ignores her request.
"Guys, could you lend a hand please? It's only me, and the house is a big place to clean." their mother asks.
"What else do you need help with? I mean, haven't you gone through the entire complex already?" Cage replies, bored.
Cassy smirks and continues scrolling through her phone.
Their mother, looking defeated and upset at the lack of any offer to help, just smiles weakly.
"Are you kids at least doing homework then?" she asks.
Cassy clearly irritated shoots back, "Its none of your business, just go back to cleaning, and don't forget you have to prepare dinner for dad when he comes back from work."
Even Cage, not wanting to clean is disturbed at his sister's rudeness and can not believe what she had just said. He can see his mother from his peripheral vision staring intensely at Cassy, but still keeping her smile. He knows how Cassy and him are not particularly the best children, but even that was overkill. Maybe Cassy just got dumped. Honestly, that is probably why. His mother, attempts to cuts through the tension,
"Darling, would you help me clean the bathtub, please.".
“No,” Cassy stammers, “Why should I?”
“Young lady-” begins their mother.
“Why don’t you ask Cage? He is your favourite after all!”
Cassy stomps downstairs, sick of this conversation. Cage looks at her leaving, bewildered about his sister’s unnecessarily excessive outburst.
“Mom, would you like me to help?” asks Cage, now feeling sorry.
“It's fine, Cage, just go back to your room,” his mother replies. She hasn't gotten much sleep lately and perhaps this is why she has no will to follow Cassy and scold her.
“Okay.” Cage quietly says, walking back to his room. He sits on his bed and continues the paperback adventure he was on before his mother called for him and Cassy. However, he can not concentrate. While he and Cassy most definitely has ups and downs, being sibling -twins- of course, he is put off by her rude attitude. He looks outside his window and at the sunny sidewalk across the street. A boy and his sister, both seemingly around 8 years old, chasing bubbles a man is blowing, presumably their father. Next to the man is a woman, likely their mother, smiling at their care-free children. Cage feels nostalgic, and remembers a time before his father was home more than he was at work. He feels sorry for his mother, having to deal with two angsty teenagers all the time. Cage wishes to have more moments like that family, but what can he do?
“I know,” Cage whispers to himself, “A family outing! With this, mom and sis might make up!”
Nervous that his idea may fail, but excited all the same, Cage runs to his mother's room.
“Mom,” he says, “Let’s have a family outing with everyone!”
“Oh, I don’t know Cage,” his mother answers, “What do you have in mind??”
“Um. The beach, we should go to the beach! You can take a break from cleaning, I'm sure it'll be fun."
“Well, I do want to rest a while, and we haven't gone to the beach in ages.” His mother looks at Cage and sees his enthusiasm, something she has not seen in her children's faces regarding family outings in a long time.
“Alright fine. We'll go to the beach.”
In the car, Cage still feels the tension in the air. He wishes that his dad wasn't at work, so that he wouldn't miss this rare family outing to the beach. Cage's mother asks the children if they are excited, in effort to raise the spirits of the group. Cage enthusiastically answers, "Yeah!", while Cassy has her earbuds in and gives no response. Their mother asks Cassy directly, slightly raising her voice this time. Cage can tell how much his mother wants this to be a good time. Cassy hears this and gives her mother an irritated look through the rear-view mirror. He tries to diffuse the situation. He doesn't like how Cassy was acting lately.
"Can you be a little bit friendlier to Mom?", Cage says to his sister.
She in turn explodes, "Why are you two being so annoying?! I don't want to talk to either of you right now!".
Cage opens his mouth to make a comeback, but he is interrupted by his mother.
"Enough, I just want us to have a good time.".
She then resumes driving, and the previous tension makes way for silence to fill the car.
Both Cassy and Cage look at their mother through the rear-view mirror and see her saddened face. Both disliking the environment, both feeling too sorry to try to undo the conflict.
When the family arrives at the beach, to everyone's relief, it's as if their previous quarrel never happened. Cage and Cassy sprint down the sand and hop into the rolling waves, while their mother sets up an umbrella and a mat. Cassy and Cage splash water at each other, a classic sibling play fight.
"You are not getting away with that.", Cage yells as Cassy runs away after emptying a water filled bucket onto her brother.
"Catch me if you can!", Cassy replies as she swims further away from shore, towards a rockier part of the beach. "Hey loser, let's dive off the rocks, it'll be fun." she climbs onto a closer rock and begins to make her way down the stretch of boulders curving out into the sea.
"Get off that! Mom's gonna be so pissed off if you bump your head, and aren't you not allowed to dive off of that??" Cage is clearly concerned. He glances back at their mother, a speckle on the sand, and back at Cassy.
"Since when did you lose all your guts Cage, watch how the daredevil does it!" Cassy yells back. Cage's eye's widen as he scans the portion of this rocky extension closer to the beach and sees a sign, "Do not dive, shallow depth with rocks.". Cage flips out.
"CASSY! WAIT DON'T-"
Too late. Cage turns back towards Cassy's direction in time to see the bottom half of her body enter the water. He feels his guts clench as Cassy's body hits something beneath the waves. His heart skips a beat as he watches her body awkwardly bend into the water. Although there is no way Cage could have heard it, he replays the scene of his sister dying, the made up thud of her head hitting the unseen boulder beneath the waves.
"Cassy is in trouble," Cage thought. "She's in trouble. Cassy is in trouble. She's not okay. She's not okay." He screams for help and waves desperately at their mother, but Cage know he is too far from the shore for anyone to hear him. He sees his mother staring at his direction blankly, and although he is too far to see her expression, he can imagine the horror of realization spread across her face. He can see her running towards the life guard, and watches the man jump into the water frantically with a buoy. Still floating in water, Cage panics, too afraid to swim closer to where Cassy jumped. He knows if he gets too close, he might injure himself on one of those boulders scattered beneath the surface, or worse, see Cassy's lifeless face. But what if she can still be saved? What if this is her last salvation? Before Cage can make up his mind, he sees blood disperse through the water where Cassy's body folded. The lifegaurd's piercing whistles are muffled and subdued beneath Cage's blank thoughts.
There was no superhero to save her nor was this a dream. His heart drowns along with Cassy. He can't speak a word or move a finger, even when the lifeguard reaches him and asks if he is alright. As the lifeguard risks his life to dive under the waves for Cassy, Cage can only think of one thing. She is completely gone. She no longer exists in this world. He feels hopeless, and begins to cry.
Cage drops on his knees when he reaches the shore. His mother is there and clasps him in his arms.
"Cage, Cage my boy what happened. Where is your sister? Where is Cassy? Where is she??" Cage's mother grabs him by the shoulders, her make-up running as her tears steam down her face."I couldn't save her, mom. I couldn't move." Cage squeaks.
"What? What do you mean? Save? Why couldn't you? What do you mean??" She says, frantic.
"She hit a boulder. She didn't come back up, I think she-"
"No, don't say that. Where is your sister? Where-"
"She's dead mom, her head hit a boulder when she was diving. She's dea-"
Cage's mom slaps him. His state of shock still renders him unable to react.
"She is not. Where is your sister," chokes out his mother, "Don't you dare say that."
The lifeguard returns, a lifeless, limp Cassy hanging from his arms. Her eyes are wide, unmoving, unsettled. Her wet hair drips red onto the sand. The lifeguard apologizes and gently lays Cassy's pale body onto the sand. Then he moves away from Cassy to call an ambulance. Their mother's grip on Cage's shoulders relax, as if she no longer has strength. She crawls, hesitantly, the short distance between herself, and her daughter.
"Cassy. My baby girl. Cassy? Wake up, sweetie. Darling, please.." their mother quietly cries out.
"Mom she's.. she isn't going to answer." Cage says. Silence blankets the heartbroken family.
"Don't. Don't SAY THAT." Cage's mother lunges towards Cage and drags him towards the waters.
"Mom! What are you doing? Stop, Mom, Stop!!" Cage squirms and fights his mother's unexpectedly strong grasp on his arm and neck. "What are you doing?! Let go Mo-"
"This is YOUR fault. You could have saved her. What is wrong with you?" She screeches.
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry Mom I trie-"
"YOUR FAULT."
Cage's mother violently shoves Cage's head into the water, face upwards to the sky. Cage is so shocked he doesn't have time to hold his breath. His pleas continue underwater and the sea rushes into his lungs, sore from screaming. It feel as if minutes pass before the lifeguard comes to pry his mother's hands off of him, but by the time that happens, Cage is already unconscious.
--
The pitch blackness of the void Cage's existence is now in, feels clammy on his metaphysical body. Cassy died, in a horrible accident. Cage hears the imaginary thud of his sister's head hitting the boulder. He can hear his mother's screams, muffled and enveloped by the waves. He can hear the deafening beeping of a heart monitor, beeping, beeping, beeping, thud, scream, beep, thud, scream, beep-
Flatline.